Horse Racing / Bill Christine : Announcers Leave ‘Em Laughing at, of All Places, Keeneland

This is the least likely place for a gathering of track announcers. Keeneland, which opened in 1936, has broken with tradition in recent years--it was one of the last tracks to have a ninth race, exactas, a pick three and a pick six--but it has never allowed itself to hire a track announcer.

So what were Dave Johnson, Mike Battaglia, Bill Johnson and Paul Rogers doing here, at a dinner the night before last week’s Blue Grass Stakes?

Cracking up the audience, that’s what. Track announcers can be funny, which is another reason Keeneland ought to have one.

Dave Johnson told a story about himself as a fledgling announcer working at the defunct Cahokia Downs, the St. Louis-area track where he called his first race.

“As the horses charged through the stretch, a rider on the outside had his brakes on, and a jockey on the inside had his brakes on,” Johnson said. “I turned to my engineer and said, ‘This is a fixed race!’

“The engineer said to me: ‘It’s all right; they’ve got to go around the track one more time.’ ”

In 1981, Battaglia had the distinction--and headache--of calling a 21-horse Kentucky Derby, one of the largest in race history.

“I called it perfectly,” Battaglia said. “I didn’t lose a horse. Then the following week at Churchill Downs, I lost the winner in a five-horse field.”

Rogers has called plenty of races for radio at Louisville.

“When I was first starting out, I thought I might lose my job and never get another one,” he said. “There was a horse in a race named Trucking Feed, and I got the name mixed up.”

Bill Johnson--no relation to Dave--was the ninth-race caller at New York tracks for 11 years, enabling Fred Capossella to go home early.

“One day--it was 1962--I had to call the entire card at Aqueduct because Cappy’s sister died,” Johnson said. “Stella Steckler was a horse owner who always used alliteration in naming her horses, just like in her own names.

“I hadn’t done the whole card in three years. Stella’s horse in the fourth race was Short Span and her horse in the fifth was Secret Story. They both won--but what the fans got was Secret Story in both races, all the way around the track.”

These announcers are added proof that Keeneland doesn’t know what it’s missing.

Kentucky Derby time can bring out reporters who normally cover other things and some of them ask odd questions of veteran horsemen. No one has asked the color of a gelding yet, but this year’s first prize might have already been won.

The other night, a reporter approached Arthur Hancock, the principal owner of Sunday Silence, and asked: “Are you interested in breeding?”

Hancock blinked, then deadpanned: “Yes. That’s how I make my living.”

A new state lottery usually has an initial negative impact on race track business, but in Kentucky, Churchill Downs has joined forces with the lottery, which accounted for sales of $27 million in its first week for an average of $7.16 a person.

One of the lottery games here is the “Kentucky Derby Dream Stakes,” which will have a $1-million first prize that is determined by the results of the Derby May 6. The 25 finalists in the Derby lottery will each be invited to bring a guest to Louisville for an expenses-paid Derby weekend.

A ticket on the Derby lottery game costs $2, which is the same price as the minimum win bet at the track.

Churchill Downs officials believe that tying the Derby to the lottery will increase interest in both the race and the sport.

Bill Shoemaker, who has indicated that this will be his last year of riding, rode at Keeneland on Wednesday, finishing next to last on a mare, My Miss Brooks, in a $75,000 stake. But at least he won $20 in a jockeys’ room card game.

Earlier, Shoemaker’s European agent, who is in charge of a farewell tour over there, approached Keeneland about a one-day guest riding appearance and the track declined. Shoemaker’s going rate for one of those shots is about $10,000.

Today marks the 40th anniversary of Shoemaker’s first of more than 8,000 wins, aboard a mare named Shafter V in a race for $3,000 claiming horses at Golden Gate Fields. The race was run on a muddy track and Shoemaker recalled that he came back with slop in his eyes because he forgot to wear an extra pair of goggles.

Shoemaker, who has won a record 998 stakes, will ride in a minor stake at Golden Gate today to commemorate the anniversary.

Jockey Jose Santos has been suspended five days, starting Friday, by Keeneland stewards for his role in the bumping incidents in the stretch that almost cost Western Playboy victory last Saturday in the Blue Grass at Keeneland. Dispersal, Santos’ mount, veered from the rail and bumped Western Playboy twice.

Trainer Bud Delp apparently decided that he wasn’t going to use Santos, anyway, in next Tuesday’s Lexington Stakes here. Delp didn’t buy Santos’ theory that Dispersal was spooked by the starting gate, which was moved to the outer rail after the start of the race. Western Playboy went on to beat Dispersal by half a length.

“I don’t know what caused the horse to do that number but it wasn’t the gate,” Delp said. “He was wearing blinkers, he couldn’t even see the gate. And he’s never been roguish. He’s always been a well-mannered horse.”

Except for the two times Santos rode Dispersal. The colt also tried to get out when he won the Louisiana Derby.

A possibility to ride Dispersal is Chris Antley, who is the hottest jockey in New York. Antley won the last two races at Aqueduct Wednesday and has ridden at least one winner there for 55 straight days.

Charlie Rose, the assistant trainer to John Veitch of Darby Dan Farm, is here with four horses--one of them Brian’s Time--while Veitch supervises grass champion Sunshine Forever and the rest of the stable at Belmont Park.

Early last year, Rose thought Darby Dan’s best chance to make this year’s Kentucky Derby was Ninety Years Young, a colt named after the late John Galbreath, the founder of the farm. But Ninety Years Young showed little in two races in Florida early this year and now Darby Dan has no candidates for the Derby.

“I had been on this horse as a 2-year-old and really liked him,” Rose said. “He reminded me of Alydar when he was a 2-year-old. But then when we got to Florida, this was a different horse. When he raced, he didn’t show any heart. That’s something you can never measure in a horse.”

Horse Racing Notes

Trainer Julio Canani said that Martial Law’s sixth-place finish in last Saturday’s Oaklawn Handicap was almost predictable, because when the horses were saddled in the infield, the Santa Anita Handicap winner couldn’t handle the crowd. . . . Martin Pedroza was suspended for five days by the Oaklawn Park stewards, who said that Martial Law’s jockey was responsible for the pressure that the horse put on runners inside him during the run around the first turn. The eight-horse race, which was won by the pacesetter, Slew City Slew, was both rough and confusing. Larry Snyder, who rode Homebuilder to a third-place finish, claimed foul against the wrong horse after he was bothered by Martial Law.

Trainer Woody Stephens, whose 3-year-old prospects are the thinnest in years, is ailing and probably won’t be back at the barn until late May. . . . Frank (Jimmy) Kilroe, Santa Anita’s vice president for racing, is recovering from a stroke. He has been released from intensive care and is undergoing therapy at Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena. . . . En route to the Kentucky Derby, Easy Goer is expected to canter past just a handful of opponents Saturday in the Wood Memorial at Aqueduct. None of his rivals gets a break in the weights, either, with everyone carrying 126 pounds, the same weight horses carry in the Derby.

Last year, Caballo de Oro won the San Simeon Handicap, Great Communicator won the San Juan Capistrano Handicap and The Medic won the San Jacinto Handicap, and all three horses are expected to run in those stakes this weekend as the Santa Anita season ends. The San Simeon will be run Saturday, the San Juan Sunday and the San Jacinto on Monday, which is closing day. The last horse to win the San Juan in successive years was Niarkos in 1967-68. . . . Hollywood Park opens next Wednesday.